Shrinking Cities: Effects on Urban Ecology and Challenges for Urban Development

Cities in industrialised countries have grown over time, yet shrinkage of cities occurs in many regions. This process has many impacts on urban ecology, which can be observed on urban brownfield sites in particular. The integration of these sites with sustainable urban development must be managed. This presents new challenges for urban planners. The first chapters give an overview of urban ecology concepts and how research in this field is affected by urban shrinkage. The following sections are concerned with botanical aspects of shrinking cities, perception of nature in the context of shrinkage and discussion of aspects of urban planning with reference to several regional examples. The book concludes with a study of urban shrinkage during the life cycles of city archetypes.

Marcel Langner, born in Mutlangen (Germany), studied geoecology at the University of Karlsruhe (TH). After receiving his PhD with a thesis titled Roadside Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) – an Efficient Sink for PM10? at the University of Karlsruhe (TH), the author has been a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Training Group (Graduiertenkolleg) Urban Ecology at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He currently works at the German Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt).
Wilfried Endlicher was born in Heidenheim an der Brenz (Germany). He studied geography, meteorology, remote sensing and romance languages at the Universities of Freiburg (Germany) and Grenoble (France). He obtained his PhD at the University of Freiburg. The author has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Concepción (Chile) and the University of Florida in Gainesville (USA). He was Professor of Geoecology at the University in Marburg (Germany) and is now Professor of Climatology and Atmospheric Environmental Research at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.